Stars Make 2017 Emmys Political – Watch Emmy Awards Speeches

Truth rating: 10

By Shari Weiss | 9:01 pm, September 17, 2017

(CBS)

Continuing this year’s trend of mixing politics with Hollywood, the 2017 Emmys on Sunday were far more political than in the past. Led by host Stephen Colbert, stars throughout the night made mention of the importance of arts funding, diversity and unity, along with references to President Donald Trump. Watch speeches from the 69th annual Emmy Awards below.

As Gossip Cop reported at the time, January’s SAG Awards took place right after Donald Trump instituted his controversial travel ban. A number of stars, including Ashton Kutcher, Julia Louis-Dreyfus, Sarah Paulson, Kerry Washington and John Lithgow, made pointed references during the show to the president as well as the divided state of our society. Lithgow gave credit to Meryl Streep for first speaking out at the Golden Globes weeks prior. Her hard-hitting speech actually earned the ire of Trump, who lashed out at her on Twitter. February’s Oscars had its fair share of political moments, too, as did the Grammys that same month, and the Tonys in June followed suit. Even young celebrities at the Teen Choice Awards in August used the platform to speak out, and the MTV Video Music Awards two weeks later had a political bent at times as well.

Now at the Emmys, Colbert set the tone for the night with his opening monologue. He actually started with a song that had politics as its inspiration, as he sang about TV being better than the actual world right now. Then during his formal remarks, Colbert spoke about how Trump influenced TV this year, and pointed out that he’s been unhappy about never winning an Emmy. The host even predicted that if he had won in years past, he may not have run for president. He then mocked Trump’s infamous obsession with crowd size, and Sean Spicer made a surprise appearance to say this was the largest audience of all time.

The next political comment came during the second award of the night, as Kate McKinnon accepted Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Comedy for her work on “SNL.” “Thank you to Hillary Clinton for your grace and grit,” the comedienne said, since so much of this past season featured McKinnon portraying the presidential candidate. A short time later, presenter (and winner) Dave Chappelle announced, “I’m truly amazed how many black people are here. I counted 11 of them on the monitor.” When Alec Baldwin later won for Outstanding Supporting Actor in Comedy for “SNL,” he declared, “I should say at long last, here, Mr. President, is your Emmy.” He also joked that it’s no wonder he and his wife didn’t have any kids in the last year. “You put that orange wig on, it’s birth control. Trust me,” Baldwin cracked. More seriously, he pointed out that most people don’t remember what bills are passed in their lifetime, but never forget a favorite song or movie. He told his peers, “What we do is important… Don’t stop doing what you’re doing. The audience is counting on you.”

When 9 To 5 co-stars Jane Fonda, Lily Tomlin and Dolly Parton presented, Fonda said that back in the day, they refused to be controlled by a “sexist, egotistical, lying, hypocritical bigot.” Tomlin declared that today they still refuse to be controlled by a “sexist, egotistical, lying, hypocritical bigot.” That received a lot of applause. They then said their award would “recognize men who conduct themselves with the utmost integrity.”

Halfway through the ceremony, Lena Waithe, who won for comedy writing, thanked the LGBTQIA community. The reality competition category followed, and Kumail Nanjiani described “The Amazing Race” as a show were people “scale walls really, really quickly.” He then cracked, “In other words, the president’s worst nightmare.” And when Donald Glover won for Outstanding Lead Actor in a Comedy Series, Donald Glover said in his acceptance speech, “I want to thank Trump for making black people number one on the most oppressed list. He’s the reason I’m probably up here.”

Louis-Dreyfus then won the corresponding Actress award, and said about the upcoming final season of “Veep,” “We did have a whole storyline about an impeachment but we abandoned that because we were worried that someone else might get to it first.” “Veep” won Outstanding Comedy right after, and producer David Mandel thanked the “Trump White House.” A short time later, while accepting Outstanding Limited Series or Special, Charlie Brooker said he’s heard 2017 is like being “trapped in one long ‘Black Mirror’ episode,” but wouldn’t think he’d be so “on the nose with the Nazis and hate.” He then encouraged everyone to “make love.”

When Sterling K. Brown won Outstanding Lead Actor in a Drama for “This Is Us,” he thanked his cast mates for being the “best white TV family a brother has ever had,” and said he and his on-screen wife would continue showing “black love.” Going back to the subject of Trump, Jeffrey Dean Morgan was discussing the Lead Actress nominees, and when he mentioned Robin Wright’s “House of Cards” alter-ego as president, Tatiana Maslany said, “She’d be great. She doesn’t tweet.” And capping off the night, “The Handmaid’s Tale” producer Bruce Miller told everyone, “Get home, get to work. We have a lot of things to fight for.” Check out the videos below.